Myanmar's national carrier, the Myanmar Airways International (MAI), will launch a direct flight between central Myanmar's Mandalay and northeastern India's Gaya city on Nov. 1 to facilitate passengers traveling, according to airline sources Monday.

"Travelers who want to visit Gaya can directly go there without coming to Yangon International Airport," said an official of MAI.

At present, MAI is flying to five countries with six Airbus A320s, transporting 500,000 passengers annually.

MAI will launch the direct flight from Yangon to China's Hong Kong before the end of this year.

MAI is known as a joint venture between the state-owned Myanmar Airways and the private Royal Myanmar Transport Co.

In addition to the 64-year-old state-operated domestic Myanma Airways (MA), there are also five other private-run domestic airliners in Myanmar, namely Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways, Air Bagan, Asian Wings and Air Kanbawza.